Release Date: March 20, 2007 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Color/1998-99
MSRP: $39.98
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: approx. 482 Minutes.
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 203
Minutes
Audio: English
Subtitles: Portuguese
Closed Captioned
Special Features:
* Gag Reel
* One Man NewsRadio
* Commentaries by Cast and Crew
Introduction:
One of the best things in the television world is the
ability to re-shoot a scene if you don’t like the way
the first one turned out, or more relevant, if
something happens to cause the destruction of the
first take. Why am I blathering about this? Because
this is actually the 2nd take of my NewsRadio review.
I forgot to save the first copy, so it’s lost to
memory forever. You’re really not missing anything
other than I’m being slightly less harsh towards Brynn
Hartman in this one.
Why did I waste a paragraph talking about that?
Because, it’s important to know when something is
changed from the original, or if things are just
wholesale not the same as they were before. That’s an
apt metaphor for NewsRadio Season 5 with the death of
Phil Hartman. With Phil gone, things were just not
the same – something was missing. This was, even
moreso than after Khandi left, no longer the original
NewsRadio. Max was no Bill, and Jon Lovitz is not
Phil Hartman. That’s not to say Jon Lovitz didn’t
bring his own special talents to the show – just that
it’s not the same. I’m a huge fan of Jon Lovitz – the
first TV DVD I ever bought was The Critic – Complete
Series – so naturally I was happy to see him join
NewsRadio. But with all the respect in the world for
Mr. Lovitz, Phil – and the Bill character – was simply
a perfect match for the show, while Max seemed a mesh
of some of Bill and Matthew’s quirks.
Still, an “off” season of NewsRadio is better than the
“best” seasons of a LOT of shows. The final season of
the show stars Dave Foley (Dave), Maura Tierney
(Lisa), Stephen Root (Jimmy), Jon Lovitz (Max), Joe
Rogan (Joe), Vicki Lewis (Beth), and the
always-interesting Andy Dick as Matthew.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
There are a few key episodes in the final season. In
the first episode of the fifth season, the WNYX gang
is mourning the death of Bill McNeal due to a sudden
heart attack – except for Andrew, who thinks this is
part of an elaborate plot Bill let him in on that
seems to change with each telling by Andrew. The cast
had trouble getting through parts of this one – tape
had to be stopped due to the cast breaking down in
tears in a few parts. The episode serves as a dual
tribute to both Bill the character, and Phil Hartman
the actor – whom the episode is dedicated. At one
point, the gang reads letters Bill left for them.
Khandi Alexander makes a one-shot re-appearance as
Catherine. In the next episode, Dave is persuaded to
hire an often-fired radio DJ, Max Louis (Jon Lovitz)
as Bill’s replacement – also, the idea of Y2K
(remember that??) wreaks havoc at the office. The
episode “Jail” (1) introduces the character of Johnny
Johnson, played by Patrick Warburton. In “Clash of
the Titans” (3), Adam West guests as himself. In
“Boston,” Dave tries to tape a message for students at
his alma mater. In “Stinkbutt,” Toby Huss – at this
point working with Stephen Root over at King of the
Hill, guests as Jack Frost, In the episode
“assistant,” Lisa’s new assistant – played by Tiffani
Thiessen – turn Joe and Dave against each other, while
Max whines (this is a trend) about the lack of a sofa
in the men’s bathroom. Folks, there’s a reason
there’s not a sofa in the men’s room – we go in, do
our business, wash up, and get out. We don’t sit
around doing this that and the other, we just go in
and take care of business.
Anyway, bathroom habits aside, in the 2nd half of the
“Wino/Wedding” 2-parter, “Wedding,” Lisa gets married
to Johnny. Yeah, what’s that Fonz, you want to
schedule the jump for 4:00 tomorrow afternoon? OK,
I’ll pencil you in. Finally, there are the last two
episodes. In the first half, “Retirement,” Jimmy
announces his retirement (who could have seen THAT one
coming?), shocking the entire staff. He winds up
resting and relaxing up in New Hampshire, but, he’s
lonely. This leads to the last episode of NewsRadio,
ever, appropriately titled “New Hampshire.”
In “New Hampshire,” Jimmy returns to WNYX to try to
convince Dave to come to New Hampshire. Dave turns
him down, and recommends Matthew, as he’s the one
person he’d actually like to lose. One by one,
everyone else decides *they’d* rather go to New
Hampshire, and accept offers Jimmy makes them. At
the end, everyone except Dave leaves for New
Hampshire…until Matthew returns – he didn’t leave
after all. The show closes with just Dave and Matthew
left at WNYX. Had the show gone to a sixth season,
the show would have been retooled around the radio
station and newspaper in New Hampshire, and presumably
they would have found *some* way to move Dave and
Matthew there.
Packaging:
If everything from here onwards sounds familiar, it
should. Not only did I just write this all 24 hours
ago, but the packaging is extremely similar to the
previous seasons’ packaging and the menus…well, you’ll
just have to read THAT section yourself). Packaging
is the same style Sony’s been using for the majority
of the releases that it’s began in the last 2
years--outer box, 2 slimcases inside. Outer box
contains the 7 cast members lined up, with Max in
front of the microphone, and Beth holding the
disconnected jack, meaning the mic isn’t wired into
anything. They’re standing in front of a New York
City skyline. This is consistent with other releases,
but I preferred the first version shown a LOT better –
same poses, but standing in front of the portrait of
Bill/Phil Hartman. Outer box contains another pose,
with Max sitting on the row of photos near the bottom,
Lisa resting against the back of the photo line
looking puzzled, and Dave laying on the photo row. The
front covers of the two slimcases feature two more
photos of the cast doing other random things, again,
in front of the sky line. Back cover’s a light blue
to dark blue gradient, with the episode titles and
descriptions in small text, in a disc breakdown format
– this is what they should have used for Maude.
Dave’s on disc 1, Matthew’s on disc 2, and Max is on
disc 3. Behind each disc on the inside of the cases
is a photo from the season inside a “585AM NewsRadio”
circle. Behind 1 is Matthew visiting Jimmy in Jail.
Behind 2 are Max and Matthew talking with Dave
standing behind Max. Behind 3 is a photo from the
Lisa/Johnny wedding. Eeesh. Discs 1 and 2 each
contain 8 shows (1-8, 9-16 respectively), while disc 3
houses 17-22 plus the non-commentary features.
Menu Design and Navigation:
It’s the same thing you’ve seen before in the previous
three releases, so I’m going to go with the shortest
word count possible--same graphics, new color
arrangement. Main menu has the old-style microphone,
options to the top-left. Episode selection features
stills of each episode with the title behind them, in
front of some headphones and a soundboard. Background
for the subtitles menu is still an old-fashioned
radio. Disc 1 menus are colored purple, Disc 2 menu
colors are green, and Disc 3 color is blue.
Video and Audio Quality:
Getting to watch the show on TBS, and on Nick @ Nite
for the seemingly 2 weeks they ran it, I’ve gotten to
see how their versions look and sound, and I can
compare to an extent with the DVD versions. Audio’s
a respectable Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Laugh track
seems to overpower the vocals to an extent – the laugh
track should never overpower a show’s vocals. Other
than that there are no glitches or defects, just that
one minor little gripe. Video is fine, the colors are
warm without being oversaturated, and there aren’t
really any compression or grain issues. Chapter stops
at the end each act. I would have preferred
scene-level stops, but I’m not going to argue –
minimal ones are better than none.
For a show chronically on the brink of cancellation,
the runtimes being in the 22 minute ballpark in
1998-99 is about right.
Disc 1:
Bill Moves On: 21:33
Meet the Max Lewis: 21:55
Lucky Burger: 21:59
Noise: 21:58
Flowers for Matthew: 21:58
Jail: 21:58
The Lam: 21:59
Clash of the Titans: 21:59
Despite the fact that they only list deleted scenes
and the gag reel on the box, there are also
commentaries and my least favorite special feature
around, One Man NewsRadio.
Disc 1:
Commentary on “Lucky Burger” (21:59) by Exec. Prod.
Paul Simms, Stephen Root, Writer Josh Lieb, and Script
Supervisor Robert Spina: And we have problems.
After turning the commentary on, I had to then select
“episodes” from the commentaries menu, select the
episode, then go to OK.
Commentary on “Flowers for Matthew” (21:58) with the
same gang as above.
Commentary on “Jail” (21:58) with the above plus Post
Production Coordinator Todd “Spider” Chambers: I’m
definitely not liking this navigation system for the
commentary.
Disc 2:
Commentary on “Spooky Rapping Crypt” (21:57) with the
above: NBC apparently threw a fit about Stephen
Root’s little beard/goatee thing he had going, and
made him shave it.
Commentary on “Stinkbutt” and “Towers” (both 21:59):
Paul Simms, Andy Dick, and Robert Spina. Breaking
the monotony here – Andy Dick is always an interesting
person to have around for 22 minutes, and Paul and
Robert keep things running smoothly--nothing really to
report from either track.
Disc 3:
Commentary on “Freaky Friday” (21:59) with Paul Simms,
Stephen Root, Todd Chambers, and writers Sam Johnson
and Chris Marcil: If you’re watching this on a
computer, you can see everything that’s on the full
shot, while on regular TV you miss things. Then they
go onto a discussion about a hidden crew member
throwing firecrackers while watching 24 Season 1 on
DVD on their HDTV.
Commentary on “New Hampshire” (22:00) with Paul,
Stephen, Sam, and Robert: The last commentary on the
last episode, on the last DVD. When they were writing
this, they were trying to set it up to either end the
show OR transition to season six, where they confirm
the show WOULD have moved to New Hampshire. They
suggest that Sony put the MTR panel from right after
this where no one knew they were going to get canceled
– onto the DVD. Obviously Sony ignored them.
Commentary run-time: 171:51
Now the rest are all on Disc 3:
Fifth Season Gag Reel (22:49): Lots and Lots and Lots
and Lots and Lots of Bloopers. Cathartic is a big
word for a pie-eyed drunk.
One Man NewsRadio (3:59): I appreciate the effort
that apparently goes into this, but I *really* don’t
like this feature. Definitely would have rather seen
the MTR panel interview.
One Man NewsRadio: The Lost Episode With or Without
Commentary (1:42): The first one of these. This
actually was filmed during the downtime, they were
bored, and so we got this. And ultimately this got on
the DVD somehow. Joe thanks for explaining what I’ve
been watching through all these, though. I DO
appreciate THAT.
Wait, the Box Said there were Deleted Scenes. Oh
well, there weren’t any last time. Must just be a
misprint. Oh well.
*Total Running Time of Special Features: 203 Minutes,
6 Seconds.*
Final Comments:
And that’s that. Four DVD sets over 2 years, and the
entire series of NewsRadio is on DVD. It’s great to
have the whole thing – now I don’t have to keep hoping
TBS doesn’t pull it – I’ve got them all, in DVD
quality. Sony’s biggest fault in DVDs is their
menus. They’re shoddy and uninspired. I can, in all
sincerity, make better menus than what Sony is putting
on their commercial DVD releases. Surely one of the
world’s largest entertainment companies can do better
than menus which haven’t been cutting edge,
style-wise, since 2001. That’s easily my biggest
gripe with this set – that and I wish they’d stuck
with the original packaging design. Also, I have to
give Sony some credit. They’ve gone from a 9-9-4
episode breakdown per disc to the more sane 8-8-6, and
it DOES produce an increase in VQ.
This is a WONDERFUL show. The humor can be a BIT
absurdist, so you might want to screen an episode or
two on TBS before buying the 4 DVD sets, but in my
estimation it’s well worth the money. NewsRadio is
one of the funniest sitcoms ever, in my opinion, and
it’s great to own the entire thing. HIGHLY
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